Summer's Breeze
by Crimson Saber
Summary: Takumi One-shot. A nice day at the summer's festival changed into something more for two friends, fate and the gentle wind always have roles to play.


Hey people, hope this day finds you well. Anyways, this little one-shot was supposed to be up for valentine's day (tells you about how well I keep my writing schedule) but my beta reader approved of it (for those of you who know takaondo, that person's hard to please). So those are about all my notes, for any who are also reading any of my other stories, up dates will probably be up this weekend., peace!

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Summer's breeze

Laughter, balloons and the promise of memories filled the air on this calm and warm summer afternoon. Kids ran all around the fairgrounds and couldn't be happier to be there. The mid-summer festival always provided for a great party for the community and everyone enjoyed themselves, so it's no surprise that we'd find our goofy legendary warrior of flame standing around waiting.

"Oh man! Where are these guys?" he checked his watch and it beeped 5 pm before he heaved another sigh. "We said 5 o'clock and I'm the first one here! There's gotta be something wrong here!"

He scanned around the area, but still couldn't see anyone he was waiting for until he heard "Hey, Takky!" from behind him.

Takuya turned and saw the legendary warrior of thunder coming towards him.

"Hey JP, what's up?"

The two did a complex and silly handshake with plenty of people staring at them oddly.

"Oh you know, just hanging around. Sorry I'm late though, I got caught up on the bus. Some little kid wanted me to keep doing magic tricks." JP laughed and so did Takuya. "Well JP, you always did have a way with kids."

The two laughed until Takuya was tackled by an orange rocket. "Takuya!"

*OOF!*

Takuya shook off his daze, recognizing that voice; he looked down and saw the familiar large and orange hat. "Hey! Tommy! How ya doing little buddy?" he said, ruffling the hat on the younger boy's hat.

"I'm having fun! It's good to see you!" Tommy jumped down and Takuya gave him a little fist bump, chuckling at his cheerful attitude.

"It's good to see you've still got that stupid grin on your face……goggles too"

Takuya smirked and turned his head to match stares with Koji, who had arrived with his twin brother Koichi, the latter which was simply standing and waving at the other two, trying his best to ignore Koji's remarks.

"You know how it is Koji, I got my goggles and you still have that stupid bandana on." Takuya laughed loudly, as did Tommy, but JP and Koichi simply stayed out of it. Takuya stepped forward to inspect for a moment. "And you've still got that stupid look on YOUR- oh wait, that IS your face!"

He started roaring in laughter and this time JP was struggling to contain his amusement, but Koichi totally blew his neutrality and started snickering at his brother, who, after a few moments of looking incredibly annoyed, cracked a smile.

"I'll give you this one Takuya." He said as his smile grew wider.

The group enjoyed it's merriments until Koji caught the sight of a beautiful blonde moving towards them. Pink Kimono with designs that looked like little wisps of purple wind on it, hair done up in a nice bun with a few bangs stylishly in her face, shining emerald eyes and a fan for an accessory. His jaw slacked.

Takuya came out of his fits of laughter long enough to wave a hand in front of Koji's face. "What's the matter Koji? Cat got your tongue?"

Koji, still in a stupor simply turned Takuya's head. Takuya's eyes were blinded for a second, with a passing car's headlights, but when he saw her, the light may as well have been angelic. His jaw didn't slack, rather his cheeks burst into an intense, visible heat. "Is that…..Zoe?!"

The other three turned and were instantly stunned by her beauty. A hush fell over the five as she approached, looking a bit self-conscious as she noticed their stricken faces.

"Uh, hey guys…..how do I look?" she did a small curtsy showing off a bit of the dress, but after a few seconds of silence Tommy was the first one to speak.

"You look great!" he said happily.

Koji nodded coolly and Koichi inspected her with a curious gaze. "Wow, this is so out of the norm for you."

Zoe flustered a little and shooed him away from her side. "That's close enough buster."

J.P. was nearly drooling at her dress. "You look fabulous. Good enough to eat even!"

The group laughed at his joke, but Takuya was oddly silent, which caught Koji's attention. He looked over at his goggled friend, who was taking on a really bright shade of red, and a smirk immediately played at Koji's lips.

"What's wrong Takuya, Cat got your tongue?" he asked sarcastically, if not smugly.

He received no answer from Takuya, who now appeared slightly flustered. Koji quirked an eyebrow and began snapping his fingers around Takuya's face, calling his name. "Hey, snap out of it lover boy!"

That got Takuya's attention as his dreamy stare subsided immediately. "Hey! Quiet would you?" he placed a gloved hand over Koji's mouth, indicating him to keep his mouth shut.

Koji forcefully removed the hand from his mouth, now smiling a bit wider. "Dude, it's just Zoe."

Takuya twiddled his thumbs. "Yeah, I know, but….she's just so beautiful and….well….."

Understanding dawned on the blue-haired boys face. "Oh, I get it. You like her!" he said in slightly above a whisper, so the others heard him and looked at the two strangely, prompting Takuya's heart to jump into his throat.

_Dang it Koji……._

Tommy was looking up at Takuya expectantly. "What were you guys talking about?"

Takuya, thinking quickly, chuckled and ruffled the younger boy's hat. "Don't worry about it little guy. Hey, do you want to hit the games? I'll go with you."

Tommy needed no further prodding and quickly forgot the subject, jumping onto Takuya's back and pointing in the direction of the various games and stands. "Giddy-up then!"

Takuya smiled, but didn't immediately run off. "So, it seems like we're splitting up?"

Koji nodded, as Koichi turned his gaze excitedly toward the rides. "Yeah, Koichi's wanted to go on those rides all week." He looked over at his brother a tad annoyed "In fact, he hasn't shut up about it."

Takuya grinned and shrugged. "Alright then, how about you JP, want to get your butt kicked at carnival games?"

JP gave him a cocky stare. "As if you could, besides, I wanted to hit the rides too. You can babysit the munchkin."

Tommy frowned "I'm not a munchkin, I'm just small!"

Takuya, laughing along with the rest of them, swallowed his nerves "And you Zoe, are you going to the rides too?"

She thought for a minute. "Well, I…"

"Of course you aren't" said Koji as he nudged her towards Takuya. "We can't just dump Tommy on Takuya all by himself! Not to mention the rides would mess up your dress, or worse…."

She paled a little as Koji snickered as Koichi was near rolling on the floor with laughter. JP thought about it for a minute, before his nose started flushing out blood. Zoe crossed her arms and turned with a huff, cheeks alight. "Alright, you've made your point."

Koji looked incredibly satisfied with himself as he turned on his heel. "Good, so, see you guys later for dinner!"

"….But I wanted to go with Zoe…." JP protested, but was dragged by Koichi in the opposite direction. "Come on JP, let's see how many rides we can hit before we hurl!"

The look on JP's face left the other 3 in stitches.

Takuya scoped out the booths as Tommy looked around anxiously. "Well Tommy, where do you want to go first?"

Tommy covered his eyes and pointed in a random direction. "Over there!"

Takuya complied as he made a whinnying sound and took off with Tommy shouting in glee. Zoe flustered a little as she couldn't keep up in her kimono. "Hey, wait up!"

Takuya skidded to a halt as he reached his destination, the ring toss, and crouched to let Tommy jump off. "Good luck." Takuya paid the attendant and the man gave Tommy his rings. Tommy tried his best to toss the rings over the bottles, but they just clanked off harmlessly. Crestfallen, he tugged at Takuya's hand. "I'm done, we can move on."

Takuya felt bad for Tommy and looked at the other customers at the stand, one actually managed to land a ring onto the bottle and Takuya had seen the throw. The trick, he realized, was not to make it onto the bottle in one go, but hit the bottle in such a way that the ring would flip over onto it. Slamming the money down on the counter, he stretched his hand out for the rings. "Don't worry Tommy; I'll get you that prize."

Takuya looked at the Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow, Rouge and Tails dolls dangling in the wind. "Let's see, three rings, I could get that really big Sonic!"

"Takuya!"

"Whoa!" the rings flew back out of his hands as he turned. "Zoe!" he waved timidly at the flustered young woman in front of him.

She blew a bang of disheveled hair out of her face. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to run in these?!" she fumed, motioning to the Kimono and sandals.

"Well, uh-"

"We have a winner!"

"Huh?!" Takuya turned and saw that right in front of him, all three rings had landed on bottles, earning him the doll he had aimed for. "Really?! Cool."

"Now which one do you want sir?"

Takuya almost pointed at the giant Sonic, but the attendant leaned into whispering range. "If I were you, I'd get the three smaller prizes, and give one to your girlfriend. She looks kind of upset."

"I-but she's not…." He suddenly found himself in possession of three small dolls. Tails, Rouge and Knuckles. The attendant winked at him. "You're welcome."

Takuya, still confused as ever turned to the other two and Tommy immediately grabbed the Tails doll. "Alright! Tails! Thanks Takuya."

Zoe couldn't help but smile warmly as Takuya nodded with a silly grin on his face. "Sure thing little buddy."

Tommy ran around, hoisting the little doll in the air as the two looked on. Takuya cleared his throat and stepped toward Zoe, extending the Rouge doll. "Here, this one's for you….."

Zoe took the soft plushy bat-woman in her arms. "Thanks…."

Takuya sighed in relief, seemed like her killing intent was decreasing."No problem, now…" he looked around for the boy in the orange hat, but saw no sight of him. "…we'd better find Tommy; I think he ran off without us."

Zoe looked around. "Yeah, where could he have gotten off to?"

Unbeknownst to the two, Tommy was making his way back to them, happily munching on a pair of large, and sweet rice balls. You see, Tommy had seen Takuya when Zoe showed up in her Kimono looking all nice. The gears started working in his head right after the ring toss for some reason. _I've gotta help Takuya out. Zoe's a tough cookie to crack._

Suddenly, as he munched absent-mindedly, the answer to his dilemma suddenly lit up before his eyes. Slowly turning as the people laughed and shouted a big wheel was alight with pinks, yellows and blues and Tommy's eyes opened to nearly impossible proportions. "Tails, I think we've got it!"

Tommy jogged merrily to the other two with Tails in tow. Takuya was still scanning the crowd. "Tom-! Whoa!" he stumbled backward as the shorter boy just seemingly popped up. Zoe started laughing. "I would have paid to see you fall on your butt Takuya."

This earned a sigh from the goggle-boy.

"Sorry if I made you worry Takuya, I just went to get a snack."

Takuya nodded. "It's alright; just don't run off like that again."

Zoe smiled warmly at him for the second time that day. _He makes kind of a cute older brother……_

Tommy nodded." I promise so can we go to the Ferris wheel now?"

"Hmm, I don't see why not!"

"All right!"

"Ugh, you two have way too much energy. You'd better not run off this time."

Takuya chuckled and crossed his heart. "I swear."

As the other two began walking Zoe looked at the Rouge doll in her hands. "Men. Am I right?"

The trio ventured to the Ferris wheel and as they stood near the gates to get in, Tommy took both of his friends' hands and made them interlock, before bolting to get on the next car without them.

"Hey Tommy!" was all Takuya managed to say before he felt a squeeze on his hand. His head swiveled slowly to a slightly blushing Zoe. "I-"

Their eye met and hearts stopped. There was nothing but her beautiful blond hair and gorgeous emerald eyes in Takuya's mind, whereas his chocolate brown eyes had captivated her in turn. This moment was well received by both, but brief as the line jerked, separating them.

The two wound up in separate cars by themselves.

"Hey, wait!" Takuya looked around but didn't see either and the ride started. He leaned out of his car desperately, but the operator wasn't too thrilled.

"Hey you, with the stupid goggles, stop doing that before you hurt yourself!"

Takuya huffed and he sat back in his seat, looking at the pink and purple sunset. The wind blew softly and ruffled his hair and a flighty sensation nigh overwhelmed him, if only for the briefest of moments. He took out a scrunched up piece of paper and a pen he still had in his pocket as he set Knuckles down next to him in the seat.

Propping his feet up on the bar of the car and leaning back, he exhaled heavily. _How should I put this?_

The Ferris wheel cranked on slowly, stopping and starting after few minutes or so, letting people linger at the top to get in the view. Takuya's mind wasn't all that much faster as he thought about his blond friend. The pen started scratching of mostly its own accord.

**Zoe, I've wanted to tell you how I've felt about you since our times in the digital world. **

He sighed and furrowed his eyebrow, repressing an urge to erase what he'd just written.

**I think we both know I'm not as smooth with these things as other guys, and I don't think I have to pretend to be. I've always been honest with you and right now isn't any different. Every time I think about us together, I just feel something I can't describe. **

He lifted his head from the paper as he felt what he'd alluded to, heart ablaze. He continued with a small smile on his face.

**There's just something about you that makes me feel amazing whenever you cheer me on, or even crack a smile. Coming from me, I don't even know how you might feel, but I want to make you happy. I guess that's all I wanted to say as I sit here alone, I probably would have told you myself.**

Takuya looked up again as he was finished with his little letter. He didn't sign his name, assuming he'd just give it to her later if he got the courage. As he folded the letter neatly, it lingered in his gloved hand as he stared at it. The wind blew again, soft at first, teasing his hear into his face, but then a little harder. Unfortunately, Takuya hadn't been gripping the letter firmly and it blew out of his hand and off the ride.

His eyes widened to saucers. "Crap!"

He lunged for it, but just barely missed; tipping it so it started spinning down. "Come here you little-!"

"Hey! I told you to stop goofing off goggle-head!"

Takuya almost fell out of the seat in surprise as the attendant yelled, but hooked his heel on the seat and pulled himself back in as quickly as he could. "Whew!" he wiped an arm across his forehead in relief. "That guy really needs to cool it."

He immediately remembered the troublesome little piece of paper and leaned out cautiously to look for it, but it was nowhere in sight. Takuya sighed and leaned back into the seat, folding his arms behind his head and kicking up his feet again to just ride out the ride. _I guess it wasn't meant to be….._

Unbeknownst to the lounging Takuya, his tipping the letter altered its flight course and the wind gently blew it into the car below him, landing square in a certain blonde's lap.

"What the-?"

Zoe inspected the neatly folded paper and determined that it was either not litter or really neatly folded litter. Then squeezed it to make sure there were no nasty surprises in it, she felt pen marks through the notebook paper and opened it. "I wonder what it says."

As her eye glanced at the first few words, her heart skipped a beat.

_It's for me._

Shining with even more curiosity, her eyes scanned every word thoroughly, her head swimming with every sentence she completed. As she finished, she let her hands drop gently into her lap. A burning sensation was clearly felt on her cheeks as her head ran through what she'd just read.

_Could it be from him?_

She looked up at the car above her and started hoping as she attempted to put the pieces together. _It said digital world, and it had to have come from this ride. So that means…._

Her cheeks burned even more as her suspicions were all but confirmed. _I like to see you smile too…_

The rest of the ride passed as Zoe's desire to talk to him grew, the ride moved agonizingly slow in her mind, if possible, even slower than normal. She began tapping her foot impatiently; a whim to yell at the operator was suppressed.

Takuya simply stared lazily at the clouds from the top and then on the way down, he caught a glimpse of Zoe behind him on the final turns and waved to her. She smiled widely and waved back, making his heart beat faster.

As the ride stopped and let the two off successively, they spotted Tommy smiling widely and innocently as he waved them over. "Hey guys! Over here!"

"Tommy!" Takuya ran over. "What the heck were you trying to pull back there?!" he whispered harshly.

Tommy just shrugged. "I figured you could use some help with Zoe!" his smile didn't fade; it in fact grew as Takuya frantically motioned for him to stop talking. The two heard footsteps behind them as Zoe approached with Rouge securely in her arms and an annoyed look on her face.

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom, be right back!" Tommy took off again, leaving a gaping Takuya to deal with Zoe.

What he didn't know was she wasn't annoyed with him or Tommy. _What do I say? I mean sure I like him, but….AUGH, why does this have to be so hard?!_

She wasn't paying attention as she stared through the ground in her thoughts; she just kind of walked into Takuya.

"Gah! Zoe, what the-?"

He instinctively put his arms around her, snapping her out of her trance. They stood like that for a moment as she simply stared into his chest.

_He's so warm…I can feel his heartbeat. _

Zoe had to resist the urge to simply clamp on and fall asleep. Her eyes had relaxed into serenity, but it hurt both to pull away. She leveled an even look at him and he could only manage confusion in response.

"Takuya…..I think this is yours." She pulled the letter from her pocket and held it up to him. Takuya's mouth dried up so fast, even he couldn't believe it. As he swallowed his fear, he didn't count on his lack of response being taken as a response.

She lowered her head. "O-oh, I….just thought"

She turned away from him as if to run, but he grabbed her arm gently and spun her around toward him, stealing the young woman's breath away.

With utmost care, he planted a kiss on her lips and took the chopsticks out of her hair so it all came unraveled. One hand on her face, the other in her hair, she was not only speechless, but slightly impressed. Zoe wrapped her hand around his neck, deepening the kiss and dropping her stuffed animal next to his, Rouge's hand falling into Knuckles'. As Zoe and Takuya continued, the wind blew gently around them with its blessing and whisked the note away into the summer's breeze.


End file.
